The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

VATICAN CITY, 13 APR 2011 (VIS) - The following declaration was made to the press in the late afternoon yesterday by the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., regarding the situation of the ex-bishop of Bruges, Belgium, Msgr. Roger Vangheluwe:

"In view of the proceedings against Msgr. Roger Vangheluwe, ex-bishop of Bruges, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - as already communicated to the Nunciature in Belgium - has requested that he leave Belgium and undergo a period of spiritual and psychological counselling. Throughout this period he will obviously be forbidden from publicly exercising his priestly or episcopal functions. The psychological treatment has been decided upon by the Congregation to enable further diagnostic and prognostic information to be gathered in order to continue and conclude the proceedings with a definitive decision, which shall remain the competence of the Congregation, to be approved by the Holy Father. This decision shall naturally require consideration of the various aspects of the question, above all the suffering of the victims and the need for justice. The proceedings are therefore still in progress and the decision made by the Congregation is of an interlocutory nature and not definitive".